Media@Sydney presents: 

Web histories – the transformation of public service broadcasting online

 

 

A seminar with Associate Professor Niels Brügger, Head of the Centre for
Internet Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark; Dr Maureen Burns, Cultural and
Media Studies, University of Queensland; and Associate Professor Anne Dunn
and Dr Fiona Martin, Dept. Media and Communications, University of Sydney.

Friday 20th May from 3-5pm at New Law School Lecture Theatre 106

Abstract: When the BBC cut its web operations by 25% last year, reducing
competition with commercial media, it triggered new global debates about the
role of public service broadcasting online. What is the purpose of services
like ABC Online in an expanding digital mediascape? What does it mean when
they gravitate to third-party commercial services like Facebook, Twitter and
Youtube? What can we learn from analysing their rapid growth?

The University of Sydney invites you to consider how the past recasts the
future of public service media at a seminar on Friday May 20th [new venue
title] with visiting web historian Associate Professor Niels Brugger, Head
of the Centre for Internet Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Niels, who is writing the history of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s
website dr.dk, is the co-editor of a new groundbreaking international
history collection Public Service Broadcasters on the Web (pub. Peter Lang,
2011).  He will present key findings from that project, along with his
co-editor Dr Maureen Burns, lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies at the
University of Queensland, and contributors Associate Professor Anne Dunn and
Dr Fiona Martin, from the Dept. Media and Communications, University of
Sydney.

The seminar will cover issues such as:
- how broadcast strategies have shaped web development
- managing online news as a commodity
- cross media training and publishing
- the risks and challenges of managing public conversation

Seminar followed by light refreshments

Location:
New Law School F10, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus map.

This Media@Sydney event is presented by the Department of Media andCommunications, University of Sydney.
For further information, contact Dr Fiona Martin fiona.martin [at] sydney.edu.au

About the speakers:

Associate Professor Niels Brügger is Head of The
Centre for Internet Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark. He has published
numerous articles, monographs and edited books, including Archiving Websites
(2005), Media History (ed. with S. Kolstrup, 2002), and Web History (ed.,
2010).  He is the editor of Public Service Broadcasters on the Web: A
Comprehensive History (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2011)

Dr Maureen Burns lectures in Cultural and Media Studies in
the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at
the University of Queensland. She is the author of ABC Online: Becoming the
ABC (2008) and co-editor of Public Service Broadcasters on the Web: A
Comprehensive History (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2011)

Associate Professor Anne Dunn is Pro Dean Academic for the Faculty of Arts
and Social Sciences, University of Sydney. She has worked across the print,
television and radio, spending 13 years with ABC Radio and Television, in
management, policy and broadcasting, as well as time with the BBC and SBS
Television. Anne¹s ARC Linkage Grant with the ABC investigates the impact of
cross media work on broadcast news. She has written about the ABC¹s regional
development of online media for Public Service Broadcasters on the Web: A
Comprehensive History (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2011).

Dr Fiona Martin lectures in Online and Convergent Media at the University of
Sydney. She is a former producer and broadcaster with ABC Radio, and has
produced print and cross media journalism. Fiona is researching convergence
and media diversity in Australian news production. She has analysed how ABC
web workers perceive the risks and benefits of user interaction for Public
Service Broadcasters on the Web: A Comprehensive History (Peter Lang,
forthcoming 2011).

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This is an excerpt version for the IH posting from a press release by Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization that supports democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world, and advocates for democracy and human rights.

“Freedom House Study Finds Mounting Threats to Internet Freedom”

Washington, DC, April 18, 2011–Cyberattacks, politically motivated censorship, and government control over internet infrastructure are among the diverse and growing threats to internet freedom, according to Freedom on the Net 2011: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media, a new study released today by Freedom House.

These encroachments on internet freedom come at a time of explosive growth in the number of internet users worldwide, which has doubled over the past five years. Governments are responding to the increased influence of the new medium by seeking to control online activity, restricting the free flow of information, and otherwise infringing on the rights of users.

“These detailed findings clearly show that internet freedom cannot be taken for granted,” said David J. Kramer, executive director of Freedom House. “Nondemocratic regimes are devoting more attention and resources to censorship and other forms of interference with online expression.”

Freedom on the Net 2011, which identifies key trends in internet freedom in 37 countries (incl. Australia, China, and South Korea), follows a pilot edition that was released in 2009. Freedom on the Net evaluates each country based on barriers to access, limitations on content, and violations of users’ rights.

 

Key Trends

* Explosion in social-media use met with censorship: In response to the growing popularity of internet-based applications like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, many governments have started targeting the new platforms as part of their censorship strategies. In 12 of the 37 countries examined, the authorities consistently or temporarily imposed total bans on these services or their equivalents.

* Bloggers and ordinary users face arrest: Bloggers, online journalists, and human rights activists, as well as ordinary people, increasingly face arrest and imprisonment for their online writings. In 23 of the 37 countries, including several democratic states, at least one blogger or internet user was detained because of online communications.

* Cyberattacks against regime critics intensifying: Governments and their sympathizers are increasingly using technical attacks to disrupt activists’ online networks, eavesdrop on their communications, and cripple their websites. Such attacks were reported in at least 12 of the 37 countries covered.

* Politically motivated censorship and content manipulation growing: A total of 15 of the 37 countries examined were found to engage in substantial online blocking of politically relevant content. In these countries, website blocks are not sporadic, but rather the result of an apparent national policy to restrict users’ access to information, including the websites of independent news outlets and human rights groups.

* Governments exploit centralized internet infrastructure to limit access: Centralized government control over a country’s connection to international internet traffic poses a significant threat to free online expression, particularly at times of political turmoil. In 12 of the 37 countries examined, the authorities used their control over infrastructure to limit widespread access to politically and socially controversial content, and in extreme cases, cut off access to the internet entirely.

The overview essay and selected graphs can be viewed here

 

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An Invitation from: Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet)

GigaNet  invites you to the event ‘Global Internet Governance: Research
and Public Policy Challenges for the Next Decade’ sponsored by the
Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet)!

WORKSHOP IN WASHINGTON, DC ON: Global Internet Governance: Research
and Public Policy Challenges for the Next Decade

Time: May 5, 2011 and  May 6, 2011
Location: International Communication Program & COTELCO, School of
International Service, American University, Washington, DC  (American
University/Tenleytown Metro Stop & Complimentary AU Shuttle to campus)
Organized By: GigaNet
Hosted By:  International Communication Program & COTELCO, School of
International Service, American University

Event Description:
The Internet’s status as a communication medium that is decentralized,
scalable and global continues to pose challenging new problems in
governance and regulation. GigaNet, an international scholarly
community created in 2006, holds a two-day conference to explore issues
such as IP address scarcity, ICANN accountability, the role of social
media in toppling dictatorships, censorship, privacy online, and the
tensions between national security and Internet freedom.  Assistant
Secretary for Commerce Larry Strickling (NTIA) will provide the keynote
speech during lunch on Thursday, May 5.  (The event will be held in the
new, LEEDS GOLD/certified SIS Building on the campus of American
University in northwest Washington, DC.)

Day one engages policy makers, academics and civil society at large in
dialogue on policy issues in global Internet governance.  The goal is
to facilitate informed dialogue on policy issues and related matters
between scholars and Internet governance stakeholders.
Day two features presentations of scholarly research based on peer
reviewed papers. The goal is to support scholarship and advance
theoretical and applied research on Internet governance.  All are
welcome to attend; preregistration is required.

TO REGISTER: Please email nlevins [at] american [dot] edu with a cc to :
icsis [at] american [dot] edu by April 28, 2011. Please indicate if you will
attend both days.  A continental breakfast and box lunch will be
provided each day.  (There is a no-host dinner on May 5.)

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Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84

By KATIE HAFNER

Paul Baran, an engineer who helped create the technical underpinnings for
the ARPANet, the government-sponsored precursor to today’s Internet, died
Saturday night at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 84.

Read more: The New York Times,  March 27, 2011

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On behalf of Gerard Goggin, CI in Internet Histories project and professor at the University of Sydney:

Dept of Media and Communications & Digital Cultures Program, USyd, present

 

‘The Computer World Could be Completely Different ‘
Theodor Holm Nelson
Founding Designer, Project Xanadu
Wed 6 April, 6pm-7.30pm, Law School Foyer, University of Sydney

 

‘The Computer World Could be Completely Different ‘:

Fish, they say, aren’t aware of water.  Most people, including computer scientists, don’t notice the hidden assumptions and traditions that have structured today’s computer world and digital documents.  These assumptions push the real problems into the laps of users and programmers.  (Note that at this level, Windows, Mac and Linux, Iphone and Android are all the same.)

Almost nobody notices the consequences of this locked cosmology that includes

• FILES. Lumps of data payload with short names.  What is “metadata”?  Data which is not in the payload–a silly distinction
• HIERARCHICAL DIRECTORIES.  These don’t allow a file to be in more than one place, annotated or checked off, and don’t notice when a file is moved.
• LUMPDOCS. It is assumed that one document = one file; this forces a crude model of publication and pushes the problem of change management to the user.
• THE PUI.  (PARC User Interface, often called “The Modern GUI”) turns the computer into a paper simulator, throwing away document structure (the original overlay links of Engelbart and others) in favor of cosmetics (fonts).  Designed for secretaries and now imposed on the whole world, the PUI traps the user–proletarianised–no longer allowed to program, in a world of application prisons.
• WALLED DATABASES.  There is no available way to represent, and keep records about, the complex interwoven tangles of real life. Everything has to be simplified and connections have to be cut in all directions.  Why?
• ONE-WAY HYPERTEXT. The ayatollahs of the World Wide Web say that two-way links are too difficult.  Translation: they don’t know how to do it.
  

People are satisfied, or intimidated, because they don’t know anything else is possible.

There is no right or wrong computer world; what is wrong is that there is only one computer world, with no other choices.

We will consider some alternatives.

Theodor Holm Nelson is an American designer, generalist, and pioneer of information technology. He coined the terms “hypermedia” and “hypertext” in 1963, and is also credited with first use of the words micropayment, transclusion, virtuality, intertwingularity and dildonics. He is the most important computing visionary of our time. The main thrust of his work has been to create a different kind of electronic document which allows many forms of connection, instead of the “paper simulation” of Word, PDF and the World Wide Web. Nelson founded Project Xanadu in 1960, a project that has inspired a whole generation of computer programmers, hobbyists and developers. The effort is documented in his  book Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974) and Literary Machines (1981). He has just published an autobiography, Possiplex.

Co-presented with the Department of Media and Communications, and Digital Cultures at the University of Sydney

For more information, contact Gerard Goggin: gerard.goggin [at] sydney.edu.au

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